CYPEKACE.E. 153 



spike only slightly exserted. Glumes of the female flowers ovate, 

 chestnut-brown, with a green midrib, and broad white scarious margins. 

 Fruit rather faintly ribbed. Nut perfect. 



Var. 0, speirostachya. 



Plate 5IDCLXX. 



Beich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. VIII. Tab. CCLII. Fig. 621. 



C. speirostachya, Sm. Engl. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 98. D. Bon, in Engl. Bot. Suppl. 



No. 2770. 

 C. Hornsucliiana, " Soppe." Reich. Ic. I.e. p. 23. 

 C. fulva, /3, Hornsucliiana, Bab. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. vi. p. 389. 



Stem smooth except sometimes immediately beneath the lowest 

 spike. Stalk of the lowest female spike exserted for nearly half its 

 length. Glumes of the female flowers broadly ovate, chestnut- brown, 

 with a green midrib and broad white scarious margins. Fruit rather 

 strongly ribbed. Nut perfect. 



( ?) Var. 7, stenlis 



C. ftdva, Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 888. Andersson, Cyper. p. 24. 

 fl^a )•?»!. Handbk. i Scand. Fl. p. 227 (non Good. ?). 



Stem rough, stalk of the lowest female spike nearly wholly included 

 in the rather short sheath. Glumes of the female flowers naiTowly 

 ovate, brownish-orange, with narrow white scarious margins. Fruit 

 much inflated, strongly ribbed, with a beak nearly as long as the rest 

 of the fruit. Nut abortive. 



Var. a in marshes, bogs, and wet pastures. Not uncommon, and 

 generally distributed. Var. in "peaty bogs, chiefly on mountams " 

 (Bab.). Var. y ( ?), "Yorkshire," Dr. Boott, in letter quoted in Brom 

 field's " Fl. Vect." p. 565. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 



In vars. a and /3 the rootstock is more or less decidedly creeping, 

 the stems being solitary or few together. Stems 8 to 18 inches high. 

 Leaves -J- inch broad or a little more. Sheaths of the stem leaves with 

 a free scarious lobe opposite the lamina, rather longer than broad. 

 Male sj^ike .', to 1 inch long, sometimes with a second small one at the 

 base. Female spikes \ to J inch long. Fruit ^ inch long. 



Var. I am unable to separate from var. a. The exserted lowest 

 peduncle is really the only tangible character, and that varies by 

 insensible gradations from nearly wholly included to longly ex.serted, 

 so that I feel quite unable to say where var. a. ends and var. 3 begins, 

 and had Smith not described it as a species, I should certainly not 

 have noticed it even as a variety. 



VOL. X. X 



